$380,000 gift will get more fresh produce to the hungry

Wednesday

Nov 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2011 at 10:10 AM

Matt Habash of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank can't get over the waste. Nationally, as much as 6?billion pounds of fresh produce never ends up on a plate each year despite a growing number of Americans who struggle with hunger. But a $380,000 pledge from an Upper Arlington couple will help Mid-Ohio buy four refrigerator trucks that would allow it to handle more fresh produce.

Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch

Matt Habash of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank can’t get over the waste.

Nationally, as much as 6?billion pounds of fresh produce never ends up on a plate each year despite a growing number of Americans who struggle with hunger.

But a $380,000 pledge from an Upper Arlington couple will help Mid-Ohio buy four refrigerator trucks that would allow it to handle more fresh produce.

The donors, Buck and Jodi Patton, have challenged the food bank to raise another $380,000 to pay the full cost of the equipment and operation costs for a year. So far, it has roughly $285,000 in donations and pledges. Mid-Ohio hopes to raise $5,000 more and get $90,000 from Franklin County.

“Demand for emergency food assistance has jumped 46 percent over the past four years, and need has been increasingly growing in the suburbs because of the poor economy, mortgage crisis and disappearing jobs,” said Habash, the food bank’s president and chief executive officer.

Mid-Ohio serves around 250,000 people a year, about half of whom are children or seniors. During the past 12 months, the food bank has distributed more than 40 million pounds of food to more than 500 pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other charities across 20 counties in central and eastern Ohio.

By adding four 26-foot refrigerator trucks to its fleet, Mid-Ohio could distribute an estimated 7.6?million pounds of additional fresh fruit, vegetables and meat each year, said Buck Patton, 65, the retired owner of a concrete block and brick manufacturing company.

That’s especially important because during the next three to five years, the food bank is expecting demand for food to double, he said.

Longtime philanthropists and personal friends of Habash, the Pattons have made several anonymous donations to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank over the years. But this is the first time they’ve attached their names to a gift.

“We’re hoping it might encourage our friends and peers to come forward and be a little bolder and give a little more than they might otherwise,” Mr. Patton said.

Habash said Mid-Ohio has increased the amount of fresh produce it offers, along with the traditional boxed and canned staples, so that families have “healthy, wholesome offerings.”

This past summer, for example, the food bank hosted 150 farmers markets, up from 26 during the last July-October harvest.

Adding four trucks to its existing fleet of 17 trucks would help immensely, Habash said.

Mid-Ohio is ordering the first two trucks and hopes to have all four in place by the end of June, before harvest season really picks up.

Commissioner Paula Brooks said she thinks Franklin County will consider providing the food bank with the remaining $90,000.

“I think Buck and Jodi are phenomenal members of our community, and bravo for them for recognizing that the community need is so great,” Brooks said.

Mrs. Patton said she and her husband will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary next summer and they couldn’t think of a better way to mark the occasion than to give the gift of “fresh, nutritional food to those who need it most.”

To make a donation to the Truck to Table Challenge, call the Mid-Ohio Foodbank at 614-274-7770.